3 Best Places to Shop in Pátzcuaro, San Miguel de Allende and the Heartland

Since 1898 the family-run Chocolate Casero Joaquinita has been concocting delectable homemade cinnamon-spiced hot-chocolate tablets. Knock on the closed and locked door, and the owner will let you in.

This small shop near the Basílica is crammed a small smattering of gifts and home-decor pieces. In addition to the heart-shaped flower vases of different colors of glass—designed by the owner and produced in Guadalajara—you'll also find paintings, embroidered items, stamped leather purses, and burnished, unglazed ceramics. The shop offers a nice selection and a friendly, English-speaking owner who's often on the premises.

Rooms surrounding the central, plant-filled patio of this old colonial house are filled with handicrafts from the region and beyond. Browse for rough-hewn wooden bowls; table runners made on back-strap looms, from cotton dyed with colors of animal and vegetable origin; pottery and shawls from various Michoacán towns; and scary wooden masks, among other quality items. Look for it in a row of shops just to the right side of La Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Salud. It's open daily.